First episode of “WIPZ Radio Plays” airs

On Nov. 20, WIPZ and the theater department produced the first episode of the new series “WIPZ Radio Plays”. This first installment focused on “love and time”. Each play was followed by an interview with the creators and cast of the plays.

A student-written play

The first play, “Today”, was written by Jarrod Langwinski, a UW-Parkside student in his senior year. The play told the story of a young man (Jarrod Langwinski), his family, and the girl he loved (Karla Chavez) as time moved quickly around them.

At first, the progression of time was hard to understand, as time passed rapidly through the months during single lines of dialogue. The narrator (Nicholas Oleksak) was heavily relied upon to explain movement and costume changes. The relationship between the young man and young woman seemed purely superficial, as they had literally no time to get to know each other.

These criticisms all resolved themselves midway through, when the timing seemed to hit its stride so that one could understand the play’s strangely fast pace and when the young woman left for college.

The humor showed through here and the rapid progression of time seemed more relatable, with an argument with his mother (Felicia Dominguez) taking months, the young man telling his girlfriend in the summer that “your Christmas present is still shipping from Singapore”, and his months of loneliness passing jobless and without leaving the house.

The grandparents (Lisa Kometsky and Ishi Salazar), who moved and spoke at two different speeds, finally got their moment in this later part of the play. The grandfather explains that it is good to move at two different speeds in love, bringing about the heartwarming line, “I’d much rather a love that hits me out of nowhere than one that always comes when you expect it.”

Overall, it was a well-done play with spectacular performances by the actors, despite its strange start.

A new take on a stage play

“So Far” by Michael Dalberg was originally written to be on stage. Despite the clear effort put into translating it into a radio play, it would have been done better with visuals.

The play centered around events in a couple’s house, where their turbulent relationship is displayed through out-of-order snapshots. The couple is meant to be played by two sets of couples, one signaling the older, more grown couple and one being the younger, more naïve pair. (The couples were played by Andrew Schurman, Jenna Kleinofen, Kevin Duffy, and Rayne Kleinofen).

This did not exactly translate to the radio, as the couples’ voices were so similar that it was hard to distinguish between the two pairs and they just seemed to be talking over each other in scene rather than having overlapping memories.

The arguments and “cute” moments seemed repetitive and dragged on, and there was an odd moment where the younger Beck kept repeating over and over that her roommate had a “fat face”.

Overall, an odd choice for a radio play. But, as they said in the play, “It wasn’t all bad, was it?”

Final thoughts

This new, creative outlet for young, aspiring stage writers is entertaining and looks like it will bring interest to the theater department. An addition like this adds variation to the reach of the theater department so that they can expand their skills and reach a wider audience. WIPZ is accepting submissions for plays, so be on the lookout for more WIPZ Radio Plays!